The present invention relates generally to prepaid casino cards, and more particularly, to prepaid casino cards that expire in predefined amounts over predefined periods of time.
Slot machines, including video poker, video keno or video blackjack (hereinafter, collectively referred to as xe2x80x9cslot machinesxe2x80x9d) are an important source of income for the gambling industry. Accordingly, casinos constantly search for new gaming strategies and features to provide additional incentives for slot machine players to continue play and to distinguish their slot machines from competitors in the industry. For example, as an added incentive to play slot machines and to increase customer loyalty, many casinos offer xe2x80x9cslot clubxe2x80x9d programs to reward slot machine players. Each player in a slot club is generally issued a player tracking card encoded with his identification number. The casino awards xe2x80x9cplayer reward pointsxe2x80x9d for the player as he plays slot machines in that casino. The xe2x80x9cplayer reward pointsxe2x80x9d can generally be redeemed for merchandise or services at the casino hotel. In many cases, however, these incentives may not be sufficient to attract new players or to retain existing casino players at slot machines.
While such slot clubs were initially successful in building customer loyalty, it has been found that conventional slot clubs have now become only a secondary consideration when a player is selecting a casino to frequent, in view of the availability of virtually indistinguishable slot clubs at most casinos. Generally, a customer can join a slot club at practically any selected casino, with each slot club offering similar programs to reward slot machine play. Thus, for many players, a slot club does not provide a sufficient novelty to incent players to return to a particular casino.
In order to attract new customers and build customer loyalty, many casinos offer xe2x80x9cbus packagesxe2x80x9d to customers, which include transportation to the casino. Typically, customers pay a fee for such packages, with at least a portion of the fee generally being returned to the customer upon arrival at the casino, in the form of food coupons and coins or tokens which may be used for slot machine play. In addition, such xe2x80x9cbus packagesxe2x80x9d typically include a coupon, good for a predefined period of time, which permits the customer to obtain additional money, if the customer makes a return trip to the casino. Typically, however, casinos have no way to ensure that a monetary amount provided to a xe2x80x9cbus packagexe2x80x9d customer for slot machine play is actually spent in the casino.
Traditionally, players obtained coins or tokens for slot machine plays from clerks who circulated through the casino or from cashiers at centralized booths. When players ran out of coins, they were thus required to return to the cashier for more coins, and thereby risk losing their position at a particular slot machine, or otherwise await the return of a circulating clerk. In order to increase customer convenience, as well as casino revenues, a number of casinos have recently introduced proprietary prepaid casino cards that permit cashless gambling. U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,874, entitled xe2x80x9cCashless Gaming Apparatus and Method,xe2x80x9d to Dickinson et al. and assigned to International Game Technology (IGT), discloses one such cashless gaming system suitable for casinos.
Generally, such cashless gaming systems allow players to provide a form of payment to a clerk and obtain a prepaid casino card, encoded with an identification number. An account, identified by the identification number, is typically created in a centralized database with the appropriate balance. Thereafter, the player selects a slot machine and inserts the prepaid casino card in a card reader provided on the slot machine. The card reader retrieves the player""s identification number from the prepaid casino card, and the previously stored cash amount is retrieved from the central database and downloaded to the selected slot machine. The player may then play the selected slot machine for as long as the player desires, until the previously stored cash amount is depleted.
In addition, with conventional prepaid casino cards, any money which a customer places on a prepaid card is generally available to the customer, as desired, and thus the customer is not required to make a return trip to the casino to access further portions of the available balance. U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,241, entitled xe2x80x9cSystem and Method for Tracking Casino Promotional Funds and Apparatus For Use Therewith,xe2x80x9d to Craine (the xe2x80x9cCraine Patentxe2x80x9d), for example, discloses a system that permits a casino to ensure that monetary amounts provided to a customer as part of a promotion are actually spent in the casino. The Craine Patent suggests varying or throttling the amount of money per hour that can be credited against a prepaid casino card for gambling on the slot machines. In this manner, a player can be limited to a predefined amount of money to spend in the casino within predefined time periods. The total balance on the prepaid card may expire on a given date, at the discretion of the casino. The system disclosed in the Craine Patent does not incent a player to make return trips to a casino, but rather, it incents the player to stay longer at the casino on any given visit.
As apparent from the above-described deficiencies with conventional casino loyalty programs, a need exists for a prepaid casino card system that incents a player to make return visits to a casino. A further need exists for a prepaid casino card system that provides flexible alternatives for providing players with fixed or variable expiration amounts over fixed or variable expiration periods, to suit various casino objectives and to permit the casino to implement numerous casino promotions. Yet another need exists for a casino prepaid card system that permits players to budget their spending. In addition, a further need exists for a casino loyalty program that stimulates business in a casino during off-peak periods. A further need exists for a prepaid casino card system that provides a monetary amount that expires in predefined expiration amounts over a plurality of expiration periods, thereby leaving any expiration amounts which are forfeited by the player as breakage (profits) for the casino.
Generally, according to one aspect of the invention, a player of a slot machine can utilize an expiring prepaid casino card to provide payment for slot machine play or other gambling activities. The expiring prepaid casino card is preferably a pointer to a monetary amount stored in a casino prepaid card database that expires in predefined expiration amounts over each of a plurality of predefined expiration periods. In an alternate implementation, the expiring prepaid casino card may be embodied as a smart card or a general-purpose debit card programmed with the predefined expiration amounts for each predefined expiration period, or a cardless electronic key or personal identification number (PIN) which may be utilized to access data records which have been programmed with the predefined expiration amounts for each predefined expiration period.
According to a further feature of the present invention, the expiring prepaid casino card provides a casino with a number of flexible alternatives for providing players with fixed or variable expiration amounts over fixed or variable expiration periods, as desired, to suit various casino objectives and to permit the casino to implement numerous casino promotions. The expiring prepaid casino card can preferably be (i) purchased by the player at face value, or at a discount; (ii) given out by the casino to a player for free as part of a promotion, or to preferred players; or (iii) issued to a player as part of a payout on a slot machine.
If a player does not utilize the entire predefined expiration amount, for a given predefined expiration period, the remaining balance on the expiring prepaid casino card allocated for the expiration period automatically expires and does not roll over into any subsequent expiration periods. In this manner, the player is incented to make return visits to a casino to access each predefined expiration amount for each predefined expiration period. In an alternative implementation, the player can be permitted a predefined number of excused absences over the expected life of the expiring prepaid casino card. For example, a player may obtain an expiring prepaid casino card which provides the player with predefined fixed expiration amounts for six individual months within a seven month period, thereby permitting an unused balance to carry over one month.
According to another aspect of the invention, the predefined expiration amounts or expiration periods do not have to be fixed units. A player can be issued an expiring prepaid casino card, for example, with a total value to be utilized in predefined variable monetary increments over predefined fixed or variable expiration periods. In various embodiments, the particular predefined variable expiration amounts which a player can access on the expiring prepaid casino card in a given expiration period can be (i) based on the time of day, week or month, in which the expiration amount was accessed, or (ii) randomly allocated among each of the several predefined expiration periods to obtain access to different expiring amounts for each expiration period. In addition, a player can have one or more predefined fixed expiration amounts increased by bonus amounts randomly awarded to one or more players from among the whole range of issued expiring prepaid casino cards. Similarly, a casino can offer bonus amounts to individual players based on past performance.
The expiring prepaid casino card can preferably be programmed with one or more further restrictions or requirements that the player must satisfy before any expiration amounts can be accessed. For example, a player may be required to (i) play a certain amount of money on a given slot machine, (ii) play a certain number of handle pulls, or (iii) play for a predefined period of time, before any predefined expiration amounts may be accessed. Likewise, a player can be denied access to available balances until one or more external events are satisfied, including, for example, particular weather conditions, particular stock market conditions, or particular casino-utilization thresholds, for example, when fewer than thirty percent (30%) of the slot machines were being utilized. In addition, the expiring prepaid casino card can be programmed with further restrictions requiring the player to wager any predefined expiration amounts which were given out by a casino for free, or purchased by a player at a discount, and thereby prevent the player from cashing out such credits.
A more complete understanding of the present invention, as well as further features and advantages of the present invention, will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description and drawings.